Principal counsel, corporate operations and rest of Latin America | The Walt Disney Company
Legal and compliance manager Colombia and Central America | Linde
Legal counsel contracts | Comcel - Claro Colombia
Legal director of corporate affairs | Hoteles Decameron
Executive vice president, general counsel | Inter-American Coal
Director of legal and corporate affairs | Oleoducto de los Llanos Orientales and Oleoducto Bicentenario de Colombia
Head of legal and corporate affairs, general counsel and compliance officer | Tecnoglass
Associate general counsel - Latin America | Trane Technologies
Advisor - legal vice president | Grupo Energía Bogotá
General counsel | Cenit Transporte y Logística de Hidrocarburos
Head of legal and compliance – compliance officer | Mazda
Corporate legal counsel and compliance officer, Andean and CCA-Caribbean and Central America Region | Avaya
Legal manager, corporate secretary | Distribuidora Nissan (Grupo Vardí)
Legal manager and compliance officer - LATAM | Cepsa Colombia
Director of legal, logistics and business | Biomax Biocombustibles
Legal vice president and secretary general | Arthur J. Gallagher Colombia
Chief legal and compliance officer | Teleperformance
General counsel and corporate affairs director | Grupo Empresarial Levapan
General secretary and legal director | Caracol Primera Cadena Radial Colombiana
Senior counsel Latam and third party risk, export controls team manager | Zoom Video Communications
Vice president legal | Cámara Colombiana de la Infraestructura
Legal vice president - general counsel | Hoteles Decameron
General counsel | Fondo Latinoamericano de reservas - FLAR
Legal and compliance manager Colombia and Panama | Bureau Veritas Colombia
Vice president of corporate affairs and secretary general | Ecopetrol
Chief counsel of private sector legal division and member of the board of directors | CAF - Development Bank of Latin America & CAF - Asset Management Uruguay
Legal director Colombia - data privacy advisor Latam | Unilever
It has been a privilege and an honour to conduct research for this year’s Legal 500 GC Powerlist: Colombia 2022, the first edition after the imposed hiatus caused by the pandemic. As lead researcher, I have had the opportunity to speak with the most outstanding in-house counsel in the region. Our interviews have touched upon several topics such as sustainability, technology and the impact of Covid-19 on business operations. Among other revelations, the overall picture that emerged is that Colombia-based in-house counsel have come out from the pandemic stronger than ever and ready to look ahead, working to bring added value to their organisations, harness technology to drive efficiencies, and make their operations more sustainable to promote the growth of the country.
Colombia’s position as one of the region’s most stable economies has allowed it to face the pandemic and overcome it without significant repercussions, and some statistics highlight this. Colombia’s GDP has expanded by 10.6% and is predicted to grow faster than any other country in Latin America. It continues to be an attractive destination for foreign investors, given the existence of multiple business centres and various sectoral demands. The strategic geographic position it enjoys at the centre of the continent allows for greater connection with every destination across the hemisphere.
Additionally, Colombia has been actively responding to international challenges, acting on sustainable development. It aims to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 51% by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. These are just some factors that make Colombia a solid place to do business and, in turn, a fertile environment for producing high-quality in-house counsel.
This year’s GC Powerlist Colombia highlights the role of general counsel in embracing change and innovation, working towards the development of their country — “my team and I work with the purpose of being seen as supporters of these initiatives, which requires an attitude towards change backed by the legal knowledge that allows seeking for responses, said Jorge Adrián Rincón Plata, chief legal officer in Grupo Aval. Technology will continue to demand in-house lawyers to drive efficiencies and work smarter. These pages reveal that in-house lawyers in Colombia are on top of their games when it comes to adapting to new scenarios and changes. As Fernando Victoria Peña, chief legal and compliance officer at Teleperformance, suggests: “the pandemic has brought many lessons to the legal profession. Our role can adapt and transform, and we can guarantee the same legal security through new technologies. We are opening the Pandora’s box to be more efficient and productive”.
I want to extend the most profound gratitude to every in-house lawyer who participated in this edition of the GC Powerlist. This issue of our worldwide publication acknowledges the most outstanding and impressive in-house lawyers who have tackled new challenges and have used their expertise and versatility to adapt to new scenarios and master the use of technology advancements to promote the success of their corporations. I am incredibly proud to be able to introduce this list of Colombia’s most outstanding, agile and acclaimed in-house lawyers.
Sara Maggi | Research analyst | GC Powerlist Series
The Legal 500’s first Asia-Pacific Corporate Governance Summit invited 150 of the region’s top general counsel to examine key topics through the lens of how they advise the key decision-makers at their organisations. Securing the vast international expertise of Baker McKenzie to assist us in putting together the schedule, we were extremely pleased with the day’s events. As well as the pre-planned discussions, conversations which followed during the networking parts of the day were incisive and open, which acted as a ringing endorsement of the excellent work done by those who moderated the discussions.
When creating the agenda, we decided the perfect way to begin would be to chat to some excellent GCs about their opinions on some of the key issues raised over the rest of the agenda. We were delighted that Lily Tsen of Amcor and Jasmine Karimi of FMC agreed to be Joe Boswell of The Legal 500’s sparring partner for what was an excellent session. Utilising the extensive expertise of the two in-house lawyers, the session successfully touched on significant issues to be covered later, in particular the importance of incorporating governance seamlessly into social and environmental goals.
Richard Lustig and Min-tze Lean of Baker McKenzie took charge of our next session which took a look into the boardroom at directors’ liabilities and shareholder activism. Jasreen Singh of dwp, Jacelyn Chan of foodpanda and Jeffery Tan of Jardine Cycle & Carriage provided excellent counterpoints to the issues raised by Lustig, with a conversation on personal liability for non-compliance generating extremely rewarding takeaways.
The next panel was on that boasted a wealth of experience to bring to bear on a subject that always carries deep resonance, that of ESG expectations. Alongside Andrew Zaw, Christine Cuthbert and Napatorn Dasananjali Termglinchan of Baker McKenzie, three highly knowledgeable GCs were on hand to give their views: Matt Kasdin of Maxeon Solar Technologies, Gladys Chun of Lazada Group and Felix Tse of Pavilion Energy.
A change of pace came with our next panel as we turned our attention to the M&A space. On stage, Mini vandePol, Xiaohui Ting, Daniel Pardede and Shih Hui Lee of Baker McKenzie, and Cathy Chan of CBRE Investment Management and Alex Liam of Sustainable Metal Cloud looked into both old and new due diligence requirements in the M&A space. The discussion was tailor-made to give audience members the best chance of getting their next deal over the line and consolidated.
Reputation safeguarding was the order of the day for the next panel session, which ended up delving into a range of scenarios for protecting the name of a company whether an issue has developed or is developing under the surface. As well as practical examples of crisis management situations that our panel had been involved with, a good deal of time was spent discussing the social media dimension, and the right way to mitigate risks related to this. Georgie Farrant and Henry Chen from Baker McKenzie, Su Hui Tan of Michelin, Tim Jackson of Vale and Andrew Ong of Kone took part in this panel, with Henry Chen providing a particularly interesting set of recommendations for companies operating in Mainland China.
Our final session focused on the extremely popular topic of AI, one which always stimulates an interesting conversation and new insights. This was no exception, with panellists Andrew Liew of The Coca-Cola Company’s Bottling Investment Group for Singapore, Malaysia & Brunei, and Ashish Chugh, Eddie Chuah, Ken Chia and Manh Hung Tran of Baker McKenzie fielding a number of insightful and poignant questions from our audience.
